A new prepaid airtime top-up, known as e-Recharge and implemented in Lesotho by ITEX, eliminates the need for PINs and allows users to top up airtime to a value of their choice.
According to ITEX operational director Andre Louw, the top-up provides instant fulfilment for customers - also called PIN-less top-up - involving the direct activation of airtime via the prepaid platform of the GSM operator, Econet Lesotho.
"The beauty of e-Recharge is that it eliminates all the problems associated with PIN distribution, such as stock management and physical distribution costs, the fraud potential of duplication or reselling of PINs, and it eliminates the need for a complex PIN entry, which can be something of a problem for semi-literate users," says Louw.
"There are also additional benefits relating to marketing information that can be mined from the database, which provides information to the operator about issues such as the frequency of recharges, the most common recharge denominations and the number of returning customers."
He says that until e-Recharge was introduced last month, the lowest prepaid voucher available from the operator cost the equivalent of R20, as a lower amount wouldn`t have been viable because of the overheads associated with printed vouchers.
"With this new system, people can buy airtime for lower amounts and because it is PIN-less, it is also easier to use, so Econet is now witnessing more customer uptake," he says.
"Basically, a customer requiring airtime immediately, who has - for example - R8.43 in their wallet, can buy airtime for that exact amount. There are no specific prepaid amounts with e-Recharge."
He says his company is already expecting further developments to spin out of the new platform and ITEX hopes to target the larger African market with this concept, as he feels the continent holds much potential for such a development.
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